Bahia Principe Grand Aquamarine - Adults only reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4.0 Very Good

  • Cleanliness 4.5
  • Location 4.0
  • Rooms 4.5
  • Service 4.0
  • Value 4.0

2556 TripAdvisor reviews

TripAdvisor users rated this property 3 out of 5

The Beautiful Pool

abandele1995 (Syracuse, New York) on Jul 16, 2024

We are currently here and have enjoyed our getaway to the Bahia Principe Grand Aquamarine. Our room is perfect for us and must be in one of the renovated ones as we have no issues. I have stayed in more modern places but we appreciate the decor and style of our pool view room in building 81. We like and have enjoyed our room. The staff members across the property are amazing!!! Again, the staff here is amazing and really do their part to make the vacation special. I have read and heard complaints about the food but for us, we love the variety and the amazing staff at the Aquario restaurant. We have visited other restaurants and have enjoyed them as well but we prefer the buffet restaurant on our property as we have become familiar with many of the staff members there. Bavaro Beach is a beautiful beach and we love that as well. The 3 stars may not reflect how much we have enjoyed our stay, but there is only one issue that I hope management addresses as we would love to return to this property and encourage our travel team to do the same....POOL HOURS!!! The one thing that prevents this from being a 4-5 star review. As an Adult only property we had hoped to spend our evenings relaxing in the pool area. A very nice pool I may add! We have a view of a pool that closes at 7pm at an adult only resort. This is unheard of for us. We recently traveled and the pool area remained open until 11pm which is common as we travel abroad a few times a year. The 7pm pool closing time is a deal breaker moving forward if it remains the same. We would love to come back but would consider another Bavaro Beach property of the pool hours remain the same. I hope that management takes the suggestions of the guest serious and extend the pool operating hours so that the guests can enjoy, relax, and unwind after our fun-filled days here in the Grand Aquamarine. PLEASE EXTEND THE POOL HOURS!!!

TripAdvisor users rated this property 5 out of 5

Great time in punta cana!!

krista b on Jul 15, 2024

Aquamarine was a great choice. Lots of food options, entertainment day and night, room was clean and very spacious, the white sand beach and clear water. Even though it was seaweed season was still beautiful, and a Swim up pool bar very friendly staff look for Rigo he's always smiling and made the best drinks.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 5 out of 5

First time visiting Punta Cana

MommaTee5 on Jul 14, 2024

My stay was amazing I didn’t want to leave. Pool bar was awesome, Rigo made wonderful drinks and my friends and I kept coming back. His engaging with guest always with a smile was excellent. Entertainment was good as well. I will be back to enjoy it all over again ??

TripAdvisor users rated this property 2 out of 5

Great if you want an American party weekend. Not if you want a quiet adults-only relaxing break.

Bethany P on Jul 13, 2024

We are an English couple in our mid 20s and generally easy to please. We visited here June/July 2024 for 2 weeks after previously staying in the same chain in Mexico and loved it. This time in the Dominican we were very disappointed. The complex is huge with 7 hotels. On first arrival we did not have much of a welcome. We spent the first few days being unsure of what facilities we are/are not allowed to use so we missed out on some key parts for the first 4 days of our stay. Pools - The pools were always packed full, warm, and dirty. The music was absurdly loud and either techno rave music or bad live performances. We like quiet, but there was not one pool on the complex where they didn’t blast music. We spent most of our time on the beach where it was somewhat quieter. Beach - Beautiful & staff work hard to clear the seaweed and keep it clean. However if using the beach be prepared to be bothered every 10 minutes by the vendors who want you to buy trips, cigars & other rubbish for ridiculous prices. Whilst they are mostly respectful if you say no thank you, you have to do this to the same person multiple times a day. It is exhausting and we felt as if we could not relax because of this. We felt nervous to leave our bags to go in the sea because of the amount of people walking past and stopping at loungers. We paid extra for an adults-only hotel but there were children in our section of the beach. Room - We had a ground floor room that was big and had decent aircon. However it was generally grimy & outdated. We could smell a musky damp smell on/off throughout our stay, which we eventually found was a leak above our doorway. There was no extraction in the bathroom so it was always wet. Can’t open the balcony doors for air as you get plagued by mosquitoes. There is no sound proofing at all and can hear all neighbours conversations. We were woken up multiple times by the staff in the building next to us and other guests shouting down the corridors. Housekeeping seemed to make the bed & sweep the floor but it was obvious that our bed sheets were not changed for the whole 2 weeks of our stay, even when we left tips. Service - The staff across the whole resort were generally rude & not interested in serving us. We were always polite and tried to chat but only a few waiters actually smiled or made eye contact. Most of them seem as if they don’t want to be there. We had several occasions where Spanish guests were favoured over us or served first despite us queueing and tipping generously, Tipping did not seem to make any difference to our service. Buffet - The buffet had a good selection but a lot of the food was very salty and flies landing on it. It was not organised at all and very chaotic with staff shouting to each other across the room. Most nights we were seated on tables that hadn’t been laid so we were waiting for cutlery (even though there were other laid tables around us which the Spanish were seated on). We had several occasions where our unfinished drinks & plates were removed from the table when we went up to the buffet and then a long wait to reorder drinks that were removed. Restaurants - We managed to get reservations at most of the restaurants. These were hit & miss but generally disappointing. A couple of nights we ended up back at the buffet for a 2nd sitting because the restaurant portions were so tiny. I got food poisoning from the Nikkei Mashua Restaurant. All menus are done via QR codes, which would be fine if the WiFi wasn’t patchy & slow. Some of the restaurants were serving food we’d already seen on the buffet the day before (e.g sushi that is served as your starter in the Japanese al carte). Disappointed with the “MEAT” restaurant which had no functioning aircon and poor food (my “new york salad” was a plate of shredded lettuce and a quarter of a tomato). One night we had booked onto an Italian but when we arrived the restaurant was closed! Tried to then have the pasta cooked by the chefs at the buffet, but there was a 20 minute queue for that. Entertainment - All entertainment in the evening is in Spanish and aimed at kids so we found that hard to follow. Most nights we ended up sleeping by 9pm as there was nothing to do and TV in the room had had no English channels. “Adults only” claim is inaccurate as there were kids about our hote/pools/beach/restaurants and staff do nothing about it. A few pros which improved our stay - ? The hotel grounds are beautiful & well kept. ? beach was clean & well looked after. We did not struggle to get a lounger as most people use the pools. ? our waiter/barman Juan at the beach who was the only cheerful member of staff we encountered. He worked hard to bring us drinks and was very friendly which made a change. ? No complaints about the drinks, generally fine and not stingy on the alcohol. ? The steak at the Garden Grill restaurant was actually very good. ? The staff made an effort to show the football at the sports bar during the Euros, which was a nice touch & the bar had a good atmosphere. However these points do not make up for the majority of our experience. We did not enjoy our stay and think this is only deserving of 3 stars at best. The Bahia Principe in Cancun is the same price point and completely different to this one. We had an amazing time there 2 years ago, but unfortunately this one in the Dominican does not compare.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 4 out of 5

Where not to eat on the Bahia property!

Diane R on Jul 09, 2024

Do not eat at MIKADO JAPANESE RESTAURANT!! smelled like raw sewage with the flies to match, terrible smell, poor ventilation, dated equipment, and very poor hygiene of cooks. Every thing was as expected and/or excellent. Pool is awesome! Housekeeping are A+ added a bed topper due to hard bed. Lobby x2 staff were great. Drinks were as expected.

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